The Election Commission of India, in a bid to ensure higher voter turnout, has joined hands with various public and private organisations and celebrities, to become a part of the poll body's voter outreach campaigns. In a press release published by the EC today, it stated that the first four phases witnessed a turnout of 66.95 percent and approximately 451 million people have voted so far.
However, with the aim of improving the turnout further in the remaining three phases, the poll body has "enhanced its focus to inform, motive and facilitate voters, and directed the CEOs of the states to step up measures."
EC has introduced an array of interventions to appeal to and motivate the voters to cast their vote during the Lok Sabha elections. These "targetted" interventions have been enchanced to "reach out to every eligible voter".
CEC Shri Rajiv Kumar along with ECs Shri Gyanesh Kumar and Shri Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, who are leading the commission, have instructed the CEOs of the States going to poll in the upcoming phases to timely distribute voter information slips to all voters and enhance outreach activities.
CEC Rajiv Rajiv Kumar said: “Commission strongly believes that partnership and collaboration are essential pillars of voter awareness programme. It's really heartening to see that on Commission's request, different institutions, influencers and celebrities having significant reach are working enthusiastically on pro-bono basis."
He also added that a "high voter turnout, would be a message from Indian voters to the world, about the strength of Indian Democracy".
CEC Kumar also urged allthe voters to cast their vote in huge numbers, since "voting day in not a holiday but a day of pride, by participating in the festival of democracy," the statement noted.
Various Voter Awareness Campaigns By EC
EC has collaborated with BCCI to increase voter awareness through the ongoing IPL season. The voter awareness messages and songs are being played at different stadiums during the cricket matches.
Another interesting aspect of this campaign is the administration of voter’s pledge through a pre-recorded video message by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, at various IPL venues. Besides this, voter awareness messages are integrated into cricket commentary.
Cricketers from ten IPL teams have also recorded voter awareness messages to encourage voters to participate in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
Facebook users pan India were also sent a voting day alert to inform and aware them about elections, motivating them to participate in the voting process. WhatsApp personalised messages have begun on election day.
"Google India is contributing through its iconic feature of Google Doodle on Poll Days and banners appearing on YouTube, Google pay and other Google Platforms," the EC statement noted.
A vast network of banks and post offices utilised by EC to reach out to a diverse audience. Department of Post has over 1.6 lakhs post offices and 1,000 ATMs and 1,000 digital screens, while banks have 1.63 branches and 2.2 lakh ATMs across the country.